Still
they resolved to call in a new one to their aid. M---- was known to be
very fond of his family; and long experience had taught the reverend
fathers that even the manliest heart may be shaken by a sudden awakening
of tender emotions. The examinations were discontinued. For three days
M---- was left to the solitude of his cell,--a solitude deeper and more
unnerving from contrast with the mental tension of the last fortnight.
Then, at the usual hour of examination, the door opened. The usual
attendants were in waiting. "Now for a new trial of wits," thought he,
as he rose to follow them. Then it occurred to him that it might be for
sentence that he was summoned; and while he was weighing the
probabilities, and calling up his strength for the occasion, he reached
the door, the attendants threw it open, and he found himself in the
presence, not of his judges, but of his wife and children. Pale,
bewildered, looking timidly towards him, through eyes dim with tears,
there they stood, utterly at a loss what to say or what to do.
He felt his heart bound. But he saw the snare, and, repressing his
emotions by a powerful effort, held out his hand instead of opening his
arms, and bidding them, cheer up and give themselves no uneasiness about
him, and above all not to let their enemies fancy that either he or they
would be cast down by anything that they could do, he calmly turned to
the guards, and told them, that, if that stale trick was all they had
brought him there for, they had better take him back to his cell.
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